This Male Birth Control Will Actually Shut Off Your Sperm to Prevent Pregnancy

It's still early in the game, but the implications are promising

Male birth control options have been pretty limited for guys—and they haven’t changed for years. Basically, if you're looking to take control of your own reproduction, you only have condoms for reversible birth control, and vasectomies if you want a permanent option.

There has been research on some other possibilities, like the male birth control shot, but none of those options has yet to come to fruition.

Now, scientists have discovered a new technique that might bring an end to the quest for male birth control: They’ve discovered a gene that controls sperm production in mice—and they've found out they can literally turn this gene on and off, as they reported in Nature Communications.

Unlike condoms, which prevent semen from entering a woman's vagina, or vasectomies, which prevent the release of sperm, this new development would potentially halt the production of sperm, the researchers said in a statement.

Here’s how it would work: Your body contains “jumping genes” called transposons, which can move from one gene to another. When they hop on to healthy genes, they can mess with the structure, causing mutations that can lead to big problems.

Small RNA molecules called piRNAs keep these “jumping genes” in check, by recognizing and destroying them before they can harm healthy genes. One gene in particular, called PNLDC1, is super important in this process.

This PNLDC1 gene is vital in sperm production. So if it’s functioning properly, it’ll fight off the transposons that can harm the production of sperm. But if you don’t have the gene, you lose your ability to fight off the gene invaders. And that can shut off your sperm factory.

So when scientists produced genetically modified mice bred without the PNLDC 1 gene, they discovered the mice had fewer sperm and smaller testicles, leaving them infertile, as they explained in the statement.

While so far the technique has only been tested in mice, the rodents do use many of the same genes involved in reproduction as we do, so it’s possible that the findings can serve as a basis for furthering the development of human male birth control.

“Silencing transposons is like fixing a water leak in your house,” study author Chen Chen, Ph.D., explained in the statement. “Rather than stuff a rag into the leak and hope that it works, we went to the source and turned off the water supply.”

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Aside from reducing the size of the mice’s testicles, it seems like turning off the PNLDC1 gene didn’t mess with other bodily processes. That’s promising, but lots more research needs to be done—especially in humans—before we can even talk about whether this can be a viable, commercial birth control option for guys in the future.

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